Texas Longhorns basketball SUSPENDS its coach Chris Beard without pay after arrest

Texas Longhorns basketball has suspended its coach Chris Beard without pay, after he was arrested Monday for allegedly ‘strangling a family member’.

Beard was booked for third-degree assault at 4:18am Monday, and the team released a statement later the same day confirming he would not be present with the team for the foreseeable future.

‘The University takes matters of interpersonal violence involving members of its community seriously. Given the information available, The University has suspended Chris Beard from his position as head coach of Men’s Basketball and will withhold his pay until further notice,’ the school said.

Austin police were called to his home on Monday, where a woman claims she was ‘assaulted and strangled’ by the 49-year-old. 

Austin police say they took a ‘disturbance hotshot’ call after midnight and officers were dispatched to Vista Lane in a residential area of Texas’ capital city. Beard has a listed address on that street (pictured)

Beard has now been suspended by the Texas Longhorns basketball team without pay 

He has posted a $10,000 bond and was subsequently released from Travis County Jail. An arrest affidavit is not currently available, according to the Travis County Clerk’s office. 

Beard’s attorney, Perry Minton, told the Austin American-Statesman that his client ‘is 100 percent innocent of these charges.’ 

‘He should never have been arrested,’ Minton told the newspaper. ‘The complainant wants him released immediately and all charges dismissed. It is truly inconceivable.’ 

Austin police say they took a ‘disturbance hotshot’ call after midnight and officers were dispatched to the 1900 block of Vista Lane in a residential area of Texas’ capital city. Beard has a listed address on that street. 

A ‘hotshot’ call is described on the department’s website as an ‘incidents which are in progress [that] are an immediate threat to life and/or public safety.’

The Longhorns are currently ranked second overall in the Associated Press poll at 7-1, and are scheduled to host in-state rival Rice on Monday night.

Associate head coach Rodney Terry will serve as acting head coach for the game, and is expected to continue in the role for the coming days and weeks. 

Beard is currently in his second season at Texas after leaving Texas Tech in 2021.

Beard and his wife, Leslie, have three daughters, according to his bio from Angelo State University, where he coached from 2013 until 2015.

Since then, the 49-year-old has coached at Little Rock and Texas Tech, where he was named the AP National Coach of the Year in 2019 as he guided the Red Raiders to the NCAA title game. Ultimately Texas Tech would lose to Virginia, but the tournament run would help Beard to sign a reported seven-year, $35 million deal with the Texas athletic department in April of 2021.

Beard and the Longhorns went 22–12 last season before losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. 

He could be fired for cause as a consequence of his arrest, meaning he would not be owed the remainder of his contract. 

As it stands, he has now been suspended and will not be paid while the investigation is ongoing. 

This is the second arrest to hit the Texas men’s basketball program this year, following Arterio Morris, who faces a misdemeanor family violence charge following an alleged incident with his former girlfriend. Morris is due in court for a hearing in the case on Wednesday.